The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-04-16
FRANCES NEW RIFLE.
New Arms ana ProJectiles Based on
Advanced Science.

ing its energy to devise new arms and
proiectiles based upon the most
advanced science. The melnitc shell
has been adopted for their artillery, and
it is claimed that the explosive force of
melinite is ten times greater than gun
powder and tenfold as great as dynamite;
that neither masonry nor ironclad
forts can resist its force The new pro-
gressive powder, invented by Colonel
Brugerc, is vastly more powerful than
ordinary gunpowder Its peculiarly
is that il burns without smoke and
almost without noise, and, developing
It's energy gradually while the pro-
iectile is moving through the barrel of
the gun, the recoil is reduced TO n
minimum, and it may be better
described as a "'push' rather than a
shock.
The fate of all great battles has nj.
most invariably depended upon the ef-
liciency of the infantry. The Macedon-
/ ian phalanX of Alexander. the tenth lc-
gion of Caesar the English infantry of
the Black Prince, the Spanish infantry
of Charles V, the grenadier guards of
Fl edrck the Great, the imperial guard
of Napoleon, the British infantry of
Give and Wellington, the "Stonewall
brigade of jackson, the Prussian in
fantry of Germany-these have success
lively been the great factors of vic
tory. Therefore. the development of
infantry tactics and arms has always
been the object of great generals. The
substitution of the iron for the wooden
ramrods BY Frederick the Great made
the Prussian infantry able to fire more
rapidly than their opponents and win
the victories which introduced Prussia
as Il military power. Napoleon, chang
ing the principal of infantry tactics
from the voley fire TO skirmish fire,
revolut oni2ed warfare. and laid down
the principle that the fire and not the
mass OF infantry was its best work.
Wellington, carrying out this idea,
trusted to the "thin red line infantry
in line of battle and not in column; yet
in those days the infantry arm was the
smooth-bore musket of very shor /
range. Though the rifle was furnished
to the flank companies of regiments
and to special corps fifty years ago it
was not until our own civil war that
whole armies were armed with ri file
muskets, the use of which made the
fate of heavy columns OF attack against
steady troops foregoing conclusion;
witness our attack on Marye's Heights
at Fredericksburg aud Pickett's charge
at Gettysburg. The development of
infantry fire has in fact RELOCATED the
bayonet to the limbo of medieval pike
and Roman swords. and has converted
cavalry into the eyes and ears of the
army rather than its mailed arm in the
decisive moment of battle.
A cavalry charge is magnificent, but
it is not war;" as the French General
Bosquet said of the charge of Bala-
klava. The cavalry saber has been
driven from the battlefield by the
revolver and rife; in the Franco-Ger-
man war, with 80, 900 German cavalry
and nearly as many French cavalry,
the hospital returns show that there
were only PIP wounds by saber and
butts of muskets. all told. At Sedan n
squadron of the hussars of the French
imperial guard charged the German
skirmish line at 400 yards distant;
none Of their bodies were found nearer
than POO yards; three-fourths of the
squadron fell in galloping 800 yards.
Such was the terrible work of the
breach-loading needle gun.
Once only was the column of attack
used in the Franco-German war. In
one of the battles before Metz. General
Steinmetz formed the famous Brand
enburg brigade in column to pierce
the French lines. In spite of the
bravery and discipline of that picked
corps, they were ANONYMOUSLY routed
and General Steinmetz reprimanded
for thus throwing away the lives of
splendid troops.
The French army is now armed with
magazine rife which possesses al
most all the above qualiiications-the
'Chalons rifle" invented by Colonel
Lebel. superintendent OF the infantry
school at Chalons. The range of tho